About Other Tribunals

The National Judicial Services also deals with other tribunals other than the law courts. This means that the Judges may be appointed in other capacities to constitute a tribunal but not as a court and deal with issues intended for the tribunal to deal with.

The two common ones are the Leadership Tribunal and an Inquiry. There are laws which allow for the setting up of the tribunals. For instance the latest of the two forms of tribunal would be:

Leadership Tribunal where leaders are referred for breach of Leadership Code and

Inquiries can be set up to inquire, investigate into matters of public concern if the authorities to appoint such a body think so. A classic example is the recent Finance Department Inquiry commissioned due to allegations of rampant abuse, misuse, fraud and mismanagement of the Finance department where public monies were alleged to have been siphoned out by dubious means. A Judge was appointed the Commissioner for the Inquiry.

The appointing authorities will make an appointment of a judge from the Judges serving the Bench to be chairman of these tribunals. The appointments only lasts for the duration of the hearing or inquiry to deal with the terms of reference and once the task is accomplished, the tribunal ceases to exist or is disbanded and the Judge revert back to their core work.

The registry also keeps records of registration of the files relevant to the setting up of the tribunal, deals with receiving and filing of documents and manages the files. Registry officer(s) are appointed to look after the registry and other logistics and related matters and work closely with the tribunal members.

The Waigani registry has one officer appointed to oversee all registry work relating to Tribunals. We do not have similar arrangements in the provincial registries.

This is because, Port Moresby has been the only location where the tribunals have been set up and the proceedings have been conducted.